Bank to seek order that lawyer repay €4.8m loans

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will ask the Commercial Court on Monday to order solicitor Thomas A Byrne to repay to it loans totalling…

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will ask the Commercial Court on Monday to order solicitor Thomas A Byrne to repay to it loans totalling some €4.8 million.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday admitted proceedings by the bank against Mr Byrne into the Commercial Court list and said he would deal with the bank's application for summary judgment on Monday afternoon.

The judge will also, on Monday, deal with an application by Mr Byrne to discharge an order secured by IIB Bank last month which restrains him from reducing his assets below €9 million.

The court was told in previous hearings that the order of October 22nd last came too late to prevent the disappearance of a sum of €9 million, loaned by IIB Bank to Mr Byrne and lodged in an NIB account.

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Mr Byrne's practice at Walkinstown Road, Dublin, has been closed by the Law Society, and the society has also secured orders freezing his accounts.

Earlier this week, four banks secured judgment for a total sum of about €30 million against him.

Mr Justice Kelly also directed that papers in relation to dealings by Mr Byrne with the Educational Building Society should be sent to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation as they contained "disturbing matters" .

The bank had contended sums were loaned on foot of undertakings which were not put in place and dishonoured "on a grand scale", the judge said.